Eric Smoodin

Looking Past the Screen: Case Studies in American Film History and Method

Film scholarship has long been dominated by textual interpretations of specific films. Looking Past the Screen advances a more expansive American film studies in which cinema is understood to be a social, political, and cultural phenomenon extending far beyond the screen. Presenting a model of film studies in which films themselves are only one source of information among many, this volume brings together film histories that draw on primary sources including collections of personal papers, popular and trade journalism, fan magazines, studio publications, and industry records. Focusing on Hollywood cinema from the teens to the 1970s, these case studies show the value of this extraordinary range of historical materials in developing interdisciplinary approaches to film stardom, regulation, reception, and production. The contributors examine State Department negotiations over the content of American films shown abroad; analyze the star image of Clara Smith Hamon, who was notorious for having murdered her lover; and consider film journalists’ understanding of the arrival of auteurist cinema in Hollywood as it was happening during the early 1970s. One contributor chronicles the development of film studies as a scholarly discipline; another offers a sociopolitical interpretation of the origins of film noir. Still another brings to light Depression-era film reviews and Production Code memos so sophisticated in their readings of representations of sexuality that they undermine the perception that queer interpretations of film are a recent development. Looking Past the Screen suggests methods of historical research, and it encourages further thought about the modes of inquiry that structure the discipline of film studies. Contributors . Mark Lynn Anderson, Janet Bergstrom, Richard deCordova, Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Sumiko Higashi, Jon Lewis, David M. Lugowski, Dana Polan, Eric Schaefer, Andrea Slane, Eric Smoodin, Shelley Stamp

Regarding Frank Capra : audience, celebrity, and American film studies, 1930-1960

In this innovative historical examination of the American movie audience, Eric Smoodin focuses on reactions to the films of Frank Capra. Best known for his Hollywood features—including It Happened One Night , It’s a Wonderful Life , and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington —Capra also directed educational films, military films, and documentaries. Based on his analysis of the reception of a broad range of Capra’s films, Smoodin considers the preferences and attitudes toward Hollywood of the people who watched movies during the “Golden Age” of studio production, from 1930 to 1960. Drawing on archival sources including fan letters, exhibitor reports, military and prison records, government and corporate documents, and trade journals, Smoodin explains how the venues where Capra’s films were seen and the strategies used to promote the films affected audience response and how, in turn, audience response shaped film production. He analyzes issues of foreign censorship and government intervention in the making of The Bitter Tea of General Yen ; the response of high school students to It Happened One Night ; fan engagement with the overtly political discourse of Meet John Doe and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ; San Quentin prisoners’ reaction to a special screening of It’s a Wonderful Life ; and at&t’s involvement in Capra’s later documentary work for the Bell Science Series. He also looks at the reception of Capra’s series Why We Fight , used by the American military to train recruits and re-educate German prisoners of war. Illuminating the role of the famous director and his films in American culture, Regarding Frank Capra signals new directions for significant research on film reception and promotion.

The National Conference of the Society for Cinema Studies New Orleans, Louisiana April 3–6, 1986

Session: Phenomenology and Film Session: “Narration” Sessions: Parody and Bakhtin Session: EARLY CINEMA Session: Approaches to Interpretation Session: Trends and Concepts in Chinese Cinema Session: Narrative in Japanese Cinema Classical German Film Theory Session: Hitchcock and Authorship Session: JERRY LEWIS Session: Women and the Avant garde Sessions: Television and Reception Theory. Theorizing Television: Text, Textuality, Intertextuality. Session: Legal Issues in Film/Video Workshop Session: Intertextuality and Ideology Session: The Promotional Text SCS Cinematheque/Videotheque